Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Globe May be Warming, but not Memphis

The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature was the warmest on record for January-April at 56.0°F (13.3°C), which is 1.24°F (0.69°C) above the 20th century average.

Yet so far here in 2010 Memphis is a whopping 7.3 degrees below normal for the period January-April based on departures from normal:

January = -2.8 F

February = -7.5 F

March = -0.9 F

April = +3.9 F

May is above normal so far, but not so much it would get us in the red numbers. And Memphis isn't the only part of America way behind the rest of the world. Take a good look at that graphic and you'll find that a bulk of the warming occurred in Saharan Africa and across the prairies of Canada, which was mostly snow covered during that period (except in April).

Still, short term warming is warming, even if it's not climate, so expect the greens to make a big production of all this.

It's odd that a huge bulk of the warming occurred over the Sahara desert and the plains of remote Canada. I don't know how many weather stations they have in those areas, and I think the satellite might also show warming, but so far in 2010 it's been cold in most of America, Europe and Asia.